\ 


THROUGH   THE    YEAR 
WITH       EMERSON 


SELECTED  AND 
ARRANGED  BY 
EDITH  E.  WOOD 


DODGE       PUBLISHING       COMPANY 
40    EAST   19TH    STREET,    NEW    YORK 


Copyright,      i  9  °  5 ,     by 
Dodge    Publishing    Company. 


THROUGH     THE     YEAR 
WITH       EMERSON 


(3) 


FRIENDSHIP 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S  ESSAY   "FRIENDSHIP" 


FRIENDSHIP. 


January  First. 

E  have  a  great  deal  more  kind 
ness  than  is  ever  spoken. 
*  *  *  the  whole  human 
family  is  bathed  with  an  ele 
ment  of  love  like  a  fine  ether. 

January  Second. 

The  effect  of  the  indulgence  of  this  human  affec 
tion  is  a  certain  cordial  exhilaration. 

January  Third. 

Friendship,  like  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  is  too 
good  to  be  believed. 

January  Fourth. 

Two  may  talk  and  one  may  hear,  but  three  cannot 
take  part  in  a  conversation  of  the  most  sincere  and 
searching  sort. 

January  Fifth. 

Almost  every  man  we  meet  requires  some  civility, 
requires  to  be  humored;  *  *  *  but  a  friend  is  a 
sane  man  who  exercises  not  my  ingenuity,  but  me. 

(7) 


FRIENDSHIP. 


January  Sixth. 

ET  the  soul  be  assured  that 
somewhere  in  the  universe  it 
should  rejoin  its  friend,  and  it 
would  be  content  and  cheerful 
alone  for  a  thousand  years. 

January  Seventh. 

I  awoke  this  morning  with  devout  thanksgiving  for 
my  friends,  the  old  and  the  new. 

January  Eighth. 

Let  us  approach  our  friend  with  an  audacious  trust 
in  the  truth  of  his  heart,  in  the  breadth,  impossible  to 
be  overturned,  of  his  foundations. 

January  Ninth. 

My  friends  have  come  to  me  unsought.  The  great 
God  gave  them  to  me. 

January  Tenth. 

When  friendships  are  real,  they  are  not  glass 
threads  of  frost-work,  but  the  solidest  thing  we 
know. 

(8) 


FRIENDSHIP. 
January  Eleventh. 

UR  friendships  hurry  to  short 
and  poor  conclusions,  because 
we  have  made  them  a  texture 
of  wine  and  dreams  instead  of 
the  tough  fiber  of  the  human 
heart. 

January  Twelfth. 

A  friend  is  a  person  with  whom  I  may  be  sincere. 
Before  him  I  may  think  aloud. 

January  Thirteenth. 

Love,  which  is  the  essence  of  God,  is  not  for  levity, 
but  for  the  total  worth  of  man. 

January  Fourteenth. 

For  perfect  friendship  may  be  said  to  require  na 
tures  so  rare  and  costly,  so  well  tempered  each,  and  so 
happily  adapted  *  *  *  that  very  seldom  can  its 
satisfaction  be  realized. 

January  Fifteenth. 

There  are  two  elements  that  go  to  the  composition 
of  friendship :  one  is  Truth,  the  other  is  Tenderness. 

(9) 


FRIENDSHIP. 


January  Sixteenth. 

RIENDSHIP— that  select  and 
sacred  relation  which  is  a  kind 
of  absolute,  and  which  even 
leaves  the  language  of  love 
suspicious  and  common,  so 
much  is  this  purer,  and  noth 
ing  is  so  much  divine. 

January  Seventeenth. 

Respect  so  far  the  holy  laws  of  this  fellowship  as 
not  to  prejudice  its  perfect  flower  by  your  impatience 
for  its  opening.  We  must  be  our  own  before  we  can 
be  another's. 

January  Eighteenth. 

Every  man  alone  is  sincere.  At  the  entrance  of  a 
second  person,  hypocrisy  begins. 

January  Nineteenth. 

Our  intellectual  and  active  powers  increase  with 
our  affection. 

January  Twentieth. 

A  friend  may  well  be  reckoned  the  master-piece  of 
nature. 


FRIENDSHIP. 
January  Twenty-first. 

APPY  is  the  house  that  shelters 

a  friend!  It  might  well  be 
built,  like  a  festal  bower  or 
arch,  to  entertain  him  a  single 
day.  Happier,  if  he  know  the 

solemnity  of  that  relation  and 
honor  its  law! 

January  Twenty-second. 

I  hate  the  prostitution  of  the  name  of  friendship  to 
signify  modish  and  worldly  alliances. 

January  Twenty-third. 

Better  be  a  nettle  in  the  side  of  your  friend  than  his 
echo. 

January  Twenty-fourth. 

The  only  money  of  God  is  God.  He  pays  never 
with  anything  less,  or  anything  else.  The  only  re 
ward  of  virtue  is  virtue :  the  only  way  to  have  a  friend 
Is  to  be  one. 

January  Twenty-fifth. 

When  a  man  becomes  dear  to  me  I  have  touched 
the  goal  of  fortune. 

(ii) 


FRIENDSHIP. 


January  Twenty-sixth. 

O  two  men  but  being  left  alone 
with  each  other  enter  into  sim 
pler  relations.  Yet  it  is  affin 
ity  that  determines  which 
two  shall  converse. 

January  Twenty-seventh. 

Let  me  alone  to  the  end  of  the  world,  rather  than 
that  my  friend  should  overstep,  by  a  word  or  a  look, 
his  real  sympathy. 

January  Twenty-eighth. 

Pleasant  are  these  jets  of  affection  which  make  a 
young  world  for  me  again. 

January  Twenty-ninth. 

Almost  all  people  descend  to  meet.  All  association 
must  be  a  compromise. 

January  Thirtieth. 

I  do  then  with  my  friends  as  I  do  with  my  books.  I 
would  have  them  where  I  can  find  them,  but  I  seldom 
use  them. 

(12) 


FRIENDSHIP. 
January  Thirty-first. 

HE  essence  of  friendship  is  en- 
tireness,  a  total  magnanimity 
and  trust.  It  must  not  sur 
mise  or  provide  for  infirmity. 
It  treats  its  object  as  a  god, 
that  it  may  deify  both. 


(13) 


COM  PENSATION 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S     ESSAY     "COMPENSATION" 


ds) 


COMPENSATION. 
February  First. 

HERE  is  always  some  leveling 
circumstance  that  puts  down 
the  overbearing,  the  strong, 
the  rich,  the  fortunate  sub 
stantially  on  the  same  ground 
with  all  others. 

February  Second. 

The  voice  of  the  Almighty  saith,  "Up  and  onward 
f orevermore !"  We  cannot  stay  amid  the  ruins. 

February  Third. 

For  everything  you  have  missed,  you  have  gained, 
something  else;  and  for  everything  you  gain  you  lose 
something. 

February  Fourth. 

Every  excess  causes  a  defect;  every  defect  an  ex 
cess.  Every  sw.e*"«&  bath  its  sour,  every  evil  its  good. 

February  Fifth. 

Treat  men  as  pawns  and  nine-pins  and  you  shall 
suffer  as  well  as  they.  If  you  leave  out  their  heart 
you  shall  lose  your  own. 

d7) 


COMPENSATION. 


February  Sixth. 


LEARN  the  wisdom  of  St. 
Bernard,  "Nothing  can  work 
me  damage  except  myself;  the 
harm  that  I  sustain  I  carry 
about  with  me,  and  never  am 
a  real  sufferer  but  by  my  own 
fault." 


February  Seventh. 

The  true  doctrine  of  omnipresence  is  that  God  re 
appears  with  all  his  parts  in  every  moss  and  cobweb. 

February  Eighth. 

He  who  by  force  of  will  or  of  thought  is  great  and 
overlooks  thousands,  has  the  responsibility  of  over 
looking. 

February  Ninth. 

The  farmer  imagines  power  and  place  are  fine 
things.  But  the  President  has  paid  dear  for  his  White 
House. 

February  Tenth. 

Punishment  is  a  fruit  that  unsuspected  ripens  within 
the  flower  of  the  pleasure  which  concealed  it. 

(18) 


COMPENSATION. 
February  Eleventh. 

VERY  opinion  reacts  on  him 
who  utters  it.  It  is  a  thread 
ball  thrown  at  a  mark,  but  the 
other  end  remains  in  the 
thrower's  bag. 

February  Twelfth. 

As  the  royal  armies  sent  against  Napoleon  *  *  * 
from  enemies  became  friends,  so  do  disasters  of  all 
kinds  *  *  *  prove  benefactors. 

February  Thirteenth. 

No  man  thoroughly  understands  a  truth  until  first 
he  has  contended  against  it. 

February  Fourteenth. 

In  general,  every  evil  to  which  we  do  not  succumb 
is  a  benefactor  *  *  *  we  gain  the  strength  of  the 
temptation  we  resist. 

February  Fifteenth. 

Though  no  checks  to  a  new  evil  appear,  the  checks 
exist,  and  will  appear. 

(19) 


COMPENSATION. 

February  Sixteenth. 

VERY  faculty  which  is  a  re 
ceiver  of  pleasure  has  an  equal 
penalty  put  on  its  abuse.  It 
is  to  answer  for  its  moderation 
with  its  life. 

February  Seventeenth. 

Cause  and  effect,  means  and  ends,  seed  and  fruit, 
cannot  be  severed ;  for  the  effect  already  blooms  in  the 
cause,  the  end  preexists  in  the  means,  the  fruit  in  the 
seed. 

February  Eighteenth. 

Every  man  in  his  lifetime  needs  to  thank  his  faults. 
February  Nineteenth. 

Benefit  is  the  end  of  nature.  But  for  every  benefit 
which  you  receive,  a  tax  is  levied. 

February  Twentieth. 

Always  pay;  for  first  or  last  you  must  pay  your  en 
tire  debt.  Persons  and  events  may  stand  for  a  time 
between  you  and  justice,  but  it  is  only  a  postponement. 

(20) 


COMPENSATION. 
February  Twenty-first. 


HILST  I  stand  in  simple  rela 
tions  to  my  fellow-man  I  have 
no  displeasure  in  meeting 
him.  *  *  *  But  as  soon 
as  there  is  any  departure  from 
simplicity  *  *  *  there  is 
hate  in  him  and  fear  in  me. 


February  Twenty-second. 

The  wise  man  always  throws  himself  on  the  side  of 
his  assailants.  It  is  more  his  interest  than  it  is  theirs 
to  find  his  weak  point. 

February  Twenty-third. 

As  no  man  had  ever  a  point  of  pride  that  was  not 
injurious  to  him,  so  no  man  had  ever  a  defect  that  was 
not  somewhere  made  useful  to  him. 

February  Twenty-fourth. 

Beware  of  too  much  good  staying  in  your  own 
hands.  It  will  fast  corrupt  and  worm  worms.  Pay  it 
away  quickly  in  some  sort. 

February  Twenty-fifth. 
A  man  cannot  speak  but  he  judges  himself. 

(21) 


COMPENSATION. 

February  Twenty-sixth. 


UR  strength  grows  out  of  our 
weakness.  Not  until  we  are 
pricked  and  stung  and  sorely 
shot  at,  awakens  the  indigna 
tion  which  arms  itself  with 
secret  forces. 


February  Twenty-seventh. 

Commit  a  crime,  and  the  earth  is  made  of  glass. 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  concealment. 

February  Twenty-eighth. 

If  the  gatherer  gathers  too  much,  nature  takes  out  of 
the  man  what  she  puts  into  his  chest;  swells  the  es 
tate,  but  kills  the  owner. 

February  Twenty-ninth. 

All  the  good  of  nature  is  the  soul's,  and  may  be 
had  if  paid  for  in  nature's  lawful  coin,  that  is  by  labor 
which  the  heart  and  the  head  allow. 


(22) 


SELF-RELIANCE 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S       ESSAY       "SELF-RELIANCE" 


(23) 


SELF-RELIANCE. 


March  First. 

HERE  is  a  time  in  every  man's 
education  when  he  arrives  at 
the  conviction  that  *  *  *  no 
kernel  of  nourishing  corn  can 
come  to  him  but  through  his 
toil  bestowed  on  that  plot  of 
ground  which  is  given  to  him 
to  till. 


March  Second. 

To  believe  your  own  thought,  to  believe  that  what 
is  true  for  you  in  your  private  heart  is  true  for  all 
men, — that  is  genius. 

March  Third. 

When  a  man  lives  with  God,  his  voice  shall  be  as 
sweet  as  the  murmur  of  the  brook  and  the  rustle  of 
the  corn. 

March  Fourth. 

Do  your  work,  and  you  shall  reinforce  yourself. 
March  Fifth. 

A  man  is  relieved  and  gay  when  he  has  put  his  heart 
into  his  work  and  done  his  best ;  but  what  he  has  said 
or  done  otherwise  shall  give  him  no  peace. 


SELF-RELIANCE. 


March  Sixth. 

LSE,  if  you  would  be  a  man, 
speak  what  you  think  to-day 
in  words  as  hard  as  cannon 
balls,  and  to-morrow  speak 
what  to-morrow  thinks  *  *  * 
though  it  contradicts  every 
thing  you  said  to-day. 

March  Seventh. 

What  I  must  do  is  all  that  concerns  me,  not  what 
the  people  think. 

March  Eighth. 

Trust  thyself:  every  heart  vibrates  to  that  iron 
string. 

March  Ninth. 

He  who  would  gather  immortal  palms  must  not  be 
hindered  by  the  name  of  goodness,  but  must  explore 
if  it  be  goodness. 

March  Tenth. 

Fear  never  but  you  shall  be  consistent  in  what 
ever  variety  of  actions,  so  that  they  be  each  honest 
and  natural  in  their  hour. 

(26) 


SELF-RELIANCE. 
March  Eleventh. 

N  every  work  of  genius  we 
recognize  our  own  rejected 
thoughts;  they  come  back  to 
us  with  a  certain  alienated 
majesty. 

March  Twelfth. 


Be  it  how  it  will,  do  right  now.  Always  scorn  ap 
pearances  and  you  always  may. 

March  Thirteenth. 

Let  a  man  then  know  his  worth,  and  keep  things 
under  his  feet. 

March  Fourteenth. 

In  the  Will  work  and  acquire,  and  thou  hast 
chained  the  wheels  of  Chance,  and  shall  always  drag 
her  after  thee. 

March  Fifteenth. 

It  is  only  as  a  man  puts  off  from  himself  all  external 
support  and  stands  alone  that  I  see  him  to  be  strong 
and  to  prevail. 

(27) 


SELF-RELIANCE. 

March  Sixteenth. 

RAYER  that  craves  a  particular 
commodity  —  anything  less 
than  all  good,  is  vicious. 

March  Seventeenth. 

Welcome  evermore  to  gods  and  men  is  the  self- 
helping  man.  For  him  all  doors  are  flung  wide. 

March  Eighteenth. 

If  we  follow  the  truth  it  will  bring  us  out  safe  at 
last. 

March   Nineteenth. 

All  persons  have  their  moments  of  reason,  when 
they  look  out  into  the  region  of  absolute  truth. 

March  Twentieth. 

If  you  can  love  me  for  what  I  am,  we  shall  be  the 
happier.  If  you  cannot,  I  will  still  seek  to  deserve 
that  you  should.  I  must  be  myself. 

(28) 


SELF-RELIANCE. 
March  Twenty-first. 

HERE  is  a  great  responsible 
Thinker  and  Actor  moving 
wherever  moves  a  man;  that 
a  true  man  belongs  to  no  other 
time  or  place,  but  is  the  center 
of  things. 

March  Twenty-second. 
Life  only  avails,  not  the  having  lived. 

March  Twenty-third. 
Insist  on  yourself;  never  imitate. 

March  Twenty-fourth. 

Prayer  is  the  contemplation  of  the  facts  of  life  from 
the  highest  point  of  view. 

March  Twenty-fifth. 
If  we  live  truly,  we  shall  see  truly. 
March  Twenty-sixth. 

Nothing  can  bring  you  peace  but  yourself.    Noth 
ing  can  bring  you  peace  but  the  triumph  of  principles. 

(29) 


SELF-RELIANCE. 

March  Twenty-seventh. 


RAVELING  is  a  fool's  paradise. 


*    *     * 


my  giant  goes  with 


me  wherever  I  go. 


March  Twenty-eighth. 
To  be  great  is  to  be  misunderstood. 
March  Twenty-ninth. 

Discontent  is  the  want  of  self-reliance ;  it  is  infirmity 
of  will. 

March  Thirtieth. 

We  pass  for  what  we  are. 
Character  teaches  above  our  wills. 

March  Thirty-first. 

As  soon  as  the  man  is  at  one  with  God,  he  will  not 
beg.     He  will  then  see  prayer  in  all  action. 


(307 


EXPERIENCE 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S       ESSAY       "EXPERIENCE" 


(3D 


EXPERIENCE. 


April  First. 

O  much  of  our  time  is  prepara 
tion,  so  much  is  routine,  and 
so  much  retrospect,  that  the 
pith  of  each  man's  genius  con 
tracts  itself  to  a  very  few 
hours. 

April  Second. 


Life  is  a  train  of  moods  like  a  string  of  beads,  and, 
as  we  pass  through  them,  they  prove  to  be  many  col 
ored  lenses  which  paint  the  world  their  own  hue,  and 
each  shows  only  what  lies  in  its  focus. 

April  Third. 

We  live  amid  surfaces,  and  the  true  art  of  life  is  to 
skate  well  on  them. 

April  Fourth. 

If  we  will  take  the  good  we  find,  asking  no  ques 
tions,  we  shall  have  heaping  measures. 

April  Fifth. 

To  fill  the  hour, — that  is  happiness;  to  fill  the  hour 
and  leave  no  crevice  for  a  repentance  or  an  approval. 

(33) 


EXPERIENCE. 


April  Sixth. 

O  not  craze  yourself  with  think 
ing,  but  go  about  your  business 
anywhere.  Life  is  not  intel 
lectual  or  critical,  but  sturdy. 
Its  chief  good  is  for  well 
mixed  people,  who  can  enjoy 
what  they  find  without  ques 
tion. 


April  Seventh. 

Nature  and  books  belong  to  the  eyes  that  see  them. 
It  depends  upon  the  mood  of  the  man,  whether  he 
shall  see  the  sunset  or  the  fine  poem. 

April  Eighth. 

To  finish  the  moment,  to  find  the  journey's  end  in 
every  step  of  the  road,  to  live  the  greatest  number  of 
good  hours,  is  wisdom. 

April  Ninth. 

The  results  of  life  are  uncalculated  and  uncalculable. 
The  years  teach  much  which  the  days  never  know. 

April  Tenth. 

Every  man  is  an  impossibility  until  he  is  born; 
everything  impossible,  until  we  see  a  success. 

(34) 


EXPERIENCE. 
April  Eleventh. 

LL  good  conversation,  manners, 
and  action,  come  from  a  spon 
taneity  which  forgets  usages, 
and  makes  the  moment  great. 
Nature  hates  calculators;  her 
methods  are  saltatory  and  im 
pulsive. 

April  Twelfth. 

Since  our  office  is  with  moments  let  us  husband 
them.  Five  minutes  of  to-day  are  worth  as  much  to 
me  as  five  minutes  in  the  next  millennium. 

April  Thirteenth. 

We  thrive  by  casualties.  Our  chief  experiences 
have  been  casual. 

April  Fourteenth. 

We  believe  in  ourselves,  as  we  do  not  believe  in 
others.  We  permit  all  things  to  ourselves,  and  that 
which  we  call  sin  in  others,  is  experiment  for  us. 

April  Fifteenth. 

There  never  was  a  right  endeavor,  but  it  succeeded. 
Patience  and  patience,  we  shall  win  at  the  last. 

(35) 


EXPERIENCE. 


April  Sixteenth. 

LL  writings  come  by  the  grace 
of  God,  and  all  doing  and  hav 
ing.  *  *  *  I  can  see  noth 
ing  at  last,  in  success  or  fail 
ure,  than  more  or  less  of  vital 
force  supplied  from  the  Eter 
nal. 


April  Seventeenth. 

A  man  is  like  a  bit  of  Labrador  spar,  which  has  no 
luster  as  you  turn  it  in  your  hand,  until  you  come  to 
a  particular  angle;  then  it  shows  deep  and  beautiful 
colors. 

April  Eighteenth. 

Every  man  thinks  a  latitude  safe  for  himself,  which 
is  no  wise  to  be  indulged  to  another. 

April  Nineteenth. 

The  great  and  crescive  self,  rooted  in  absolute-na 
ture,  supplants  all  relative  existence,  and  ruins  the 
kingdom  of  mortal  friendship  and  love. 

April  Twentieth. 

Life  will  be  imaged,  but  cannot  be  divided  nor 
doubled.  Any  invasion  of  its  unity  would  be  chaos. 

(36) 


EXPERIENCE. 


April  Twenty-first. 


HE  most  attractive  class  of  peo 
ple  are  those  who  are  powerful 
obliquely,  and  not  by  the  direct 
stroke:  men  of  genius  but  not 

yet  accredited:  one  gets  the 
cheer  of  their  light,  without 
paying  too  great  a  tax. 


April  Twenty-second. 

Men  live  in  their  fancy,  like  drunkards  whose  hands 
are  too  soft  and  tremulous  for  successful  labor.  It  is 
a  tempest  of  fancies,  and  the  only  ballast  I  know,  is 
a  respect  to  the  present  hour. 

April  Twenty-third. 

A  man  is  a  golden  impossibility.  The  line  he  must 
walk  is  a  hair's  breadth.  The  wise  through  excess  of 
wisdom  is  made  a  fool. 

April  Twenty-fourth. 

In  popular  experience  everything  good  is  on  the 
highway.  *  *  *  to  say  nothing  of  nature's  pic 
tures  in  every  street,  of  sunsets  and  sunrises  every 
day,  and  the  sculpture  of  the  human  body  never  ab 
sent. 


(37) 


'EXPERIENCE. 


April  Twenty-fifth. 

AM  grown  by  sympathy  a  little 
eager  and  sentimental,  but 
leave  me  alone  and  I  should 
relish  every  hour  and  what  it 
brought  me.  *  *  *  I  am 
thankful  for  small  mercies. 

April  Twenty-sixth. 

Man  lives  by  pulses;  our  organic  movements  are 
such,  *  *  *  and  the  mind  goes  antagonizing  on, 
and  never  prospers  but  by  fits. 

April  Twenty-seventh. 

Life  is  a  series  of  surprises,  and  would  not  be  worth 
taking  or  keeping,  if  it  were  not.  God  delights  to 
isolate  us  every  day,  and  hide  from  us  the  past  and 
the  future. 

April  Twenty-eighth. 

Human  life  is  made  up  of  two  elements,  power  and 
form,  and  the  proportion  must  be  invariably  kept,  if 
we  would  have  it  sweet  and  sound.  Each  of  these 
elements  in  excess  makes  a  mischief  as  hurtful  as  its 
defect. 


(38) 


EXPERIENCE. 
April  Twenty-ninth. 

EVER  mind  the  ridicule,  never 
mind  the  defeat:  up  again,  old 
heart! — it  seems  to  say, — there 

is  victory  yet  for  all  justice. 
April  Thirtieth. 

The  ardors  of  piety  agree  at  last  with  the  coldest 
skepticism, — that  nothing  is  of  us  or  our  works, — that 
all  is  of  God. 


139) 


PRUDENCE 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S        ESSAY        "PRUDENCE" 


(41) 


PRUDENCE. 


May  First. 

E  write  from  aspiration  and 
antagonism,  as  well  as  from 
experience.  We  paint  those 
qualities  which  we  do  not 
possess. 

May  Second. 


Prudence  is  the  virtue  of  the  senses.  It  is  the 
science  of  appearances.  It  is  the  outmost  action  of 
the  inward  life. 

May  Third. 

Prudence  is  false  when  detached.  It  is  legitimate 
when  it  is  the  Natural  History  of  the  soul  incarnate, 
when  it  unfolds  the  beauty  of  laws  within  the  narrow 
scope  of  the  senses. 

May  Fourth. 

Nature  punishes  any  neglect  of  prudence. 
May  Fifth. 

We  are  instructed  by  these  petty  experiences  which 
usurp  the  hours  and  years. 

(43) 


PRUDENCE. 

May  Sixth. 

RUDENCE  does  not  go  behind 
nature  and  ask  whence  it  is? 
It  takes  the  laws  of  the  world 
whereby  man's  being  is  condi 
tioned,  as  they  are,  and  keeps 
these  laws  that  it  may  enjoy 
their  proper  good. 

May  Seventh. 

Time  is  always  bringing  the  occasions  that  disclose 
their  value.  Some  wisdom  comes  out  of  every  natural 
and  innocent  action. 

May  Eighth. 

Let  a  man  keep  the  law, — any  law, — and  his  way 
will  be  strown  with  satisfactions. 

May  Ninth. 

If  the  hive  be  disturbed  by  rash  and  stupid  hands, 
instead  of  honey  it  will  yield  us  bees. 

May  Tenth. 

The  application  of  means  to  ends  ensures  victory, 
and  the  songs  of  victory  not  less  in  a  farm  or  a  shop 
than  in  the  tactics  of  party  or  of  war. 

(44) 


PRUDENCE. 

May  Eleventh. 

UR  American  character  is 
marked  with  a  more  than  aver 
age  delight  in  accurate  per 
ception,  which  is  shown  by  the 
currency  of  the  by-word,  "No 
Mistake." 

May  Twelfth. 

The  domestic  man,  who  loves  no  music  so  well  as 
his  kitchen  clock  and  the  airs  which  the  logs  sing  to 
him  as  they  burn  on  the  hearth,  has  solaces  which 
others  never  dream  of. 

May  Thirteenth. 

He  that  despiseth  small  things  will  perish  by  little 
and  little. 

/ 

May  Fourteenth. 

As  much  wisdom  may  be  expended  on  a  private 
economy  as  on  an  empire,  and  as  much  wisdom  may 
be  drawn  from  it. 

May  Fifteenth. 

In  skating  over  thin  ice  our  safety  is  in  our  speed. 

(45) 


PRUDENCE. 


May  Sixteenth. 

Y  diligence  and  self-command 
let  him  put  the  bread  he  eats 
at  his  own  disposal,  and  not  at 
that  of  others,  that  he  may  not 
stand  in  bitter  and  false  rela 
tions  to  other  men ;  for  the  best 
good  of  wealth  is  freedom. 

May  Seventeenth. 

Poetry  and  prudence  should  be  coincident.  Poets 
should  be  law-givers ;  that  is,  the  boldest  lyric  inspira 
tion  should  not  chide  and  insult,  but  should  announce 
and  lead  the  civil  code  and  the  day's  work. 

May  Eighteenth. 

Let  him  learn  that  everything  in  nature,  even  motes 
and  feathers,  go  by  law  and  not  by  luck,  and  that 
which  he  sows  he  reaps. 

May  Nineteenth. 

The  eye  of  prudence  may  never  shut. 
May  Twentieth. 

On  him  who  scorned  the  world,  as  he  said,  the 
scorned  world  wreaks  its  revenge. 

(46) 


PRUDENCE. 


May  Twenty-first. 

RANKNESS  proves  to  be  the 
best  tactics,  for  it  invites 
frankness,  puts  the  parties  on 
a  convenient  footing,  and 
makes  their  business  a  friend 
ship. 

May  Twenty-second. 

Keep  the  rake,  says  the  haymaker,  as  nigh  the 
scythe  as  you  can,  and  the  cart  as  nigh  the  rake. 

May  Twenty-third. 

A  man  of  genius,  of  an  ardent  temperament,  reckless 
of  physical  laws,  self-indulgent,  becomes  presently  un 
fortunate,  querulous,  a  "discomfortable  cousin,"  a 
thorn  to  himself  and  others. 

May  Twenty-fourth. 

Every  violation  of  truth  is  not  only  a  sort  of  suicide 
in  the  liar,  but  is  a  stab  at  the  health  of  human  society. 

May  Twenty-fifth. 

Trust  men  and  they  will  be  true  to  you,  treat  them 
greatly  and  they  will  show  themselves  great. 

(47) 


PRUDENCE. 


May  Twenty-sixth. 

HE  good  husband  finds  method 
as  efficient  in  the  packing  of 
fire-wood  in  a  shed  or  in  the 
harvesting  of  fruits  in  the  cel 
lar,  as  in  the  files  of  the  De 
partment  of  State. 

May  Twenty-seventh. 

The  prudence  which  secures  an  outward  well-being 
is  not  to  be  studied  by  one  set  of  men,  whilst  heroism 
and  holiness  are  studied  by  another,  but  they  are  rec 
oncilable. 

May  Twenty-eighth. 

He  who  wishes  to  walk  in  the  most  peaceful  parts 
of  life  with  any  serenity  must  screw  himself  up  to 
resolution. 

May  Twenty-ninth. 

Our  words  and  actions  to  be  fair  must  be  timely. 
A  gay  and  pleasant  sound  is  the  whetting  of  the 
scythe  in  the  mornings  of  June ;  yet  what  is  more  lone 
some  and  sad  than  the  sound  of  a  whetstone  or  mow 
er's  rifle  when  it  is  too  late  in  the  season  to  make 
hay? 

(48) 


PRUDENCE. 


May  Thirtieth. 


ET  him  practice  the  minor  vir 
tues.  How  much  of  human 
life  is  lost  in  waiting!  Let 
him  not  make  his  fellow  crea 
tures  wait.  How  many  words 
and  promises  are  promises  of 
conversation!  Let  his  be 
words  of  fate. 


May  Thirty-first. 

It  (prudence)  is  God  taking  thought  for  oxen.  It 
moves  matter  after  the  laws  of  matter.  It  is  content 
to  seek  health  of  body  by  complying  with  physical 
conditions,  and  health  of  mind  by  the  laws  of  the  in 
tellect. 


(4?) 


LOVE 


SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S        ESSAY        "LOVE" 


(51) 


LOVE. 


June  First. 

ATURE  *  *  *  in  the  first 
sentiment  of  kindness  antici 
pates  already  a  benevolence 
which  shall  lose  all  particular 
regards  in  its  general  light. 
The  introduction  of  this  felic 
ity  is  in  a  private  and  tender 
relation  of  one  to  one,  which  is 
the  enchantment  of  human  life. 

June  Second. 


This  passion  of  which  we  speak,  though  it  begin 
with  the  young,  yet  forsakes  not  the  old,  or  rather 
suffers  no  one  who  is  truly  its  servant  to  grow  old. 

June  Third. 

Love  is  omnipresent  in  nature  as  motive  and  re 
ward.  Love  is  our  highest  word  and  the  synonym  of 
God. 

June  Fourth. 

Every  soul  is  a  celestial  Venus  to  every  other  souL 
June  Fifth. 

Like  a  certain  divine  rage  (this  enchantment)  seizes 
on  man  at  one  period  and  works  a  revolution  in  his 
mind  and  body. 

(S3) 


LOVE. 


June  Sixth. 

T  matters  not,  whether  we  at 
tempt  to  describe  the  passion 
at  twenty,  at  thirty,  or  at 
eighty  years.  He  who  paints 
it  at  the  first  period  will  lose 
some  of  its  later,  he  who  paints 
it  at  the  last,  some  of  its  earlier 
traits. 

June  Seventh. 


Every  promise  of  the  soul  has  innumerable  fulfill 
ments.  Each  of  its  joys  ripens  into  a  new  want. 

June  Eighth. 

Alas!  I  know  not  why,  but  infinite  compunctions 
embitter  in  mature  life  all  the  remembrances  of  bud 
ding  sentiment,  and  cover  every  beloved  name. 

June  Ninth. 

Everything  is  beautiful  seen  from  the  point  of  the 
intellect,  or  as  truth.  But  all  is  sour  if  seen  as  ex- 
perien 

June  Tenth. 

Details  are  always  melancholy;  the  plan  is  seemly 
and  noble. 

(54) 


LOVE. 


June   Eleventh. 


ITH  thought,  with  the  ideal,  is 
immortal  hilarity,  the  rose  of 
joy.  Round  it  all  the  muses 
sing.  But  with  names  and 
persons  and  the  partial  inter 
ests  of  to-day  and  yesterday  is 
grief. 

June  Twelfth. 


Every  heart  has  its  sabbaths  and  jubilees  in  which 
the  world  appears  as  a  hymeneal  feast. 

June  Thirteenth. 

All  mankind  love  a  lover.  The  earliest  demonstra 
tions  of  complacency  and  kindness  are  nature's  most 
winning  pictures. 

June  Fourteenth. 

It  is  strange  how  painful  is  the  actual  world — the 
painful  kingdom  of  time  and  place.  There  dwells  care 
and  canker  and  fear. 

June  Fifteenth. 

He  touched  the  secret  of  the  matter  who  said  of 
love,  "All  other  pleasures  are  not  worth  its  pains." 

(55) 


LOVE. 

June  Sixteenth. 

E  our  experience  in  particulars 
what  it  may,  no  man  ever  for 
got  the  visitations  of  that 
power  to  his  heart  and  brain, 
which  created  all  things  new. 

June  Seventeenth. 

Beauty  is  ever  that  divine  thing  the  ancients  es 
teemed  it.  It  is,  they  said,  the  flowering  of  virtue. 

June  Eighteenth. 

Into  the  most  pitiful  and  abject  it  will  infuse  a 
heart  and  courage  to  defy  the  world,  so  only  it  have 
the  countenance  of  the  beloved  object. 

June  Nineteenth. 

The  passion  re-makes  the  world  for  the  youth. 
*  *  *  Nature  grows  conscious.  Every  bird  on 
the  boughs  of  the  tree  sings  now  to  his  heart  and 
soul. 

June  Twentieth. 

We  are  by  nature  observers,  and  thereby  learners. 
(56) 


LOVE. 


June  Twenty-first. 

HE  statue  is  then  beautiful  when 
it  begins  to  be  incomprehensi 
ble,  when  it  is  passing  out  of 
criticism  *  *  *  but  de 
mands  an  active  imagination  to 
go  with  it,  and  to  say  what  it 
is  in  the  act  of  doing. 

June  Twenty-second. 

The  strong  bent  of  nature  is  seen  in  the  proportion 
which  this  topic  of  personal  relations  usurps  in  the  con 
versation  of  society.  What  do  we  wish  to  know  of 
any  worthy  person  so  much  as  how  he  sped  in  the 
history  of  this  sentiment. 

June  Twenty-third. 

The  Deity  sends  the  glory  of  youth  before  the  soul, 
that  it  may  avail  itself  of  beautiful  bodies  as  aids  to  its 
recollection  of  the  celestial  good  and  fair. 

June  Twenty-fourth. 

It  is  a  fire  that,  kindling  its  first  embers  in  the  nar 
row  nook  of  a  private  bosom,  caught  from  a  wandering 
spark  out  of  another  private  heart,  glows  and  enlarges, 
*  *  *  and  so  lights  up  the  whole  world  and  all 
nature  with  its  generous  flame. 

(57) 


LOVE. 


June  Twenty-fifth. 

HAT  which  is  so  beautiful  and 
attractive  as  these  relations, 
must  be  succeeded  and  sup 
planted  only  by  what  is  more 
beautiful,  and  so  on  forever. 

June  Twenty-sixth. 

We  are  often  made  to  feel  that  our  affections  are 
but  tents  of  a  night.  Though  slowly  and  with  pain, 
the  objects  of  the  affections  change  as  the  objects  of 
thought  do. 

June  Twenty-seventh. 

There  are  moments  when  the  affections  rule  and 
absorb  the  man  and  make  his  happiness  dependent 
upon  a  person  or  persons.  But  in  health  the  mind  is 
presently  seen  again. 

June  Twenty-eighth. 

By  conversation  with  that  which  is  in  itself  excel 
lent,  magnanimous,  lowly  and  just,  the  lover  comes 
to  a  warmer  love  of  these  nobilities,  and  a  quicker  ap 
prehension  of  them. 

(58) 


LOVE. 


June  Twenty-ninth. 


F  poetry  the  success  is  not  at 
tained  when  it  lulls  and  satis 
fies,  but  when  it  astonishes 
and  fires  us  with  new  en 
deavors  after  the  unattainable. 

June  Thirtieth. 

We  need  not  fear  that  we  can  lose  anything  by  the 
progress  of  the  soul.  The  soul  may  be  trusted  to  the 
end. 


(59) 


CIRCLES 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S       ESSAY       "CIRCLES" 


(61) 


CIRCLES. 


July  First. 

HE  eye  is  the  first  circle;  the 
horizon  which  it  forms  is  the 
second;  and  throughout  nature 
this  primary  picture  is  re 
peated  without  end. 

July  Second. 


Our  life  is  an  apprenticeship  to  the  truth  that 
around  every  circle  another  can  be  drawn. 

July  Third. 

St.  Augustine  described  the  nature  of  God  as  a  circle 
whose  center  was  everywhere  and  its  circumference 
nowhere. 

July  Fourth. 

There  are  no  fixtures  in  nature.  The  universe  is 
fluid  and  volatile.  *  *  *  Our  Globe  seen  by  God 
is  a  transparent  law,  not  a  mass  of  facts.  The  law 
dissolves  the  fact  and  holds  it  fluid. 

July  Fifth. 

Men  walk  as  prophecies  of  the  next  age. 
(63) 


CIRCLES. 


July  Sixth. 

VERYTHING  looks  permanent 
until  its  secret  is  known.  A 
rich  estate  appears  to  women 
and  children  a  firm  and  lasting 
fact;  to  a  merchant,  one  easily 
created  out  of  any  materials, 
and  easily  lost. 

July  Seventh. 


The  life  of  man  is  a  self-evolving  circle,  which,  from 
a  ring  imperceptibly  small,  rushes  on  all  sides  out 
wards  to  new  and  larger  circles  and  that  without  end. 

July  Eighth. 

The  extent  to  which  this  generation  of  circles,  wheel 
without  wheel,  will  go,  depends  on  the  force  or  truth 
of  the  individual  soul. 

July  Ninth. 

How  often  must  we  learn  this  lesson?  Men  cease 
to  interest  us  when  we  find  their  limitations. 

July  Tenth. 

Beware  when  the  great  God  lets  loose  a  thinker  on 
this  planet. 

(64) 


CIRCLES. 


July  Eleventh. 

HERE  is  not  a  piece  of  science 
but  its  flank  may  be  turned  to 
morrow;  there  is  not  any  liter 
ary  reputation  *  *  *  that 
may  not  be  revised  and  con 
demned. 

July  Twelfth. 


Good  as  is  discourse,  silence  is  better,  and  shames  it. 
The  length  of  the  discourse  indicates  the  distance  of 
thought  betwixt  the  speaker  and  the  hearer. 

July  Thirteenth. 

Every  man  is  not  so  much  a  workman  in  the  world 
as  he  is  a  suggestion  of  that  he  should  be. 

July  Fourteenth. 

Valor  consists  in  the  power  of  self-recovery,  so  that 
a  man  cannot  have  his  flank  turned,  cannot  be  out- 
generalled,  but  put  him  where  you  will,  he  stands. 

July  Fifteenth. 

Thus  there  is  no  sleep,  no  pause,  no  preservation, 
but  all  things  renew,  germinate  and  spring. 

(65) 


CIRCLES. 


July  Sixteenth. 


HE  key  to  every  man  is  his 
thoughts.  Sturdy  and  defy 
ing  though  he  look,  he  has  a 
helm  which  he  obeys,  which 
is  the  idea  after  which  all  his 
facts  are  classified.  He  can 
only  be  reformed  by  showing 
him  a  new  idea  which  com 
mands  his  own. 


July  Seventeenth. 

No  truth  so  sublime  but  it  may  be  trivial  to-mor 
row  in  the  light  of  new  thoughts. 

July  Eighteenth. 

The  only  sin  is  limitation.  As  soon  as  you  once 
come  up  with  a  man's  limitations,  it  is  all  over  with 
him. 

July  Nineteenth. 

Life  is  a  series  of  surprises.  We  do  not  guess  to 
day  the  mood,  the  pleasure,  the  power  of  to-morrow, 
when  we  are  building  up  our  being. 

July  Twentieth. 

No  love  can  be  bound  by  oath  or  covenant  to  secure 
it  against  a  higher  love. 

(66) 


CIRCLES. 

July  Twenty-first. 

ONVERSATION  is  a  game  of 
circles.  In  conversation  we 
pluck  up  the  termini  which 
bound  the  common  of  silence 
on  every  side. 

July  Twenty-second 

,    Nothing  great  was  ever  achieved  without  enthu 
siasm. 

July   Twenty-third. 

In  nature  every  moment  is  new;  the  best  is  al 
ways  swallowed  and  forgotten;  the  coming  only  is 
sacred. 

July  Twenty-fourth. 

The  sweet  of  nature  is  love ;  yet  if  I  have  a  friend  I 
am  tormented  by  my  imperfections.  *  *  *  If  he 
were  high  enough  to  slight  me,  then  could  I  love  him, 
and  rise  by  my  affection  to  new  heights. 

July  Twenty-fifth. 

The  great  man  is  not  convulsible.  He  is  so  much 
that  events  pass  over  him  without  much  impression. 

(67) 


CIRCLES. 


July  Twenty-sixth. 

HE  things  which  are  dear  to 
men  at  this  hour  are  so  on  ac 
count  of  the  ideas  which  have 
emerged  on  their  mental  hori 
zon,  and  which  cause  the  pres 
ent  order  of  things,  as  a  tree 
bears  its  apples. 

July  Twenty-seventh. 

The  continual  effort  to  raise  himself  above  himself, 
to  •work  a  pitch  above  his  last  height,  betrays  itself  in 
a  man's  relations.  We  thirst  for  approbation,  yet  can 
not  forgive  the  approver. 

July  Twenty-eighth. 

Infinitely  alluring  and  attractive  was  he  to  you  yes 
terday,  a  great  hope,  a  sea  to  swim  in ;  now,  you  have 
found  his  shores,  found  it  a  pond,  and  you  care  not  if 
you  never  see  it  again. 

July  Twenty-ninth. 

The  one  thing  which  we  seek  with  insatiable  desire 
is  to  forget  ourselves,  to  be  surprised  out  of  our  pro 
priety,  to  lose  our  sempiternal  memory  and  to  do 
something  without  knowing  how  or  why ;  in  short,  to 
draw  a  new  circle. 

(68) 


CIRCLES. 


July  Thirtieth. 


VERY  personal  consideration 
that  we  allow  costs  us  heav 
enly  state.  We  sell  the 
thrones  of  angels  for  a  short 
and  turbulent  pleasure. 

July  Thirty-first. 

One  man's  justice  is  another's  injustice;  one  man's 
beauty  another's  ugliness ;  one  man's  wisdom  another's 
folly;  as  one  beholds  the  same  objects  from  a  higher 
point  of  view. 


THE     OVER-SOUL 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S       ESSAY       "THE       OVER-SOUL" 


THE  OVER-SOUL. 


August  First. 

HE  philosophy  of  six  thousand 
years  has  not  searched  the 
chambers  and  magazines  of 
the  soul.  In  its  experiments 
there  has  always  remained,  in 
the  last  analysis,  a  residuum  it 
could  not  resolve. 


August  Second. 

Our  faith  comes  in  moments;  our  vice  is  habitual. 
Yet  there  is  a  depth  in  those  brief  moments  which 
constrains  us  to  ascribe  more  reality  to  them  than  to 
all  other  experiences. 

August  Third. 

I  am  constrained  every  moment  to  acknowledge  a 
higher  origin  for  events  than  the  will  I  call  mine. 

August  Fourth. 

Man  is  a  stream  whose  source  is  hidden.  Always 
our  being  is  descending  into  us  from  we  know  not 
whence. 

August  Fifth. 

There  is  a  difference  between  one  and  another  hour 
of  life  in  their  authority  and  subsequent  effect. 

(73) 


THE  OVER-SOUL. 


August  Sixth. 

HEN  it  (the  soul)  breathes 
through  his  intellect,  it  is  gen 
ius;  when  it  breathes  through 
his  will,  it  is  virtue;  when  it 
flows  through  his  affection,  it 
is  love. 

August  Seventh. 


How  dear,  how  soothing  to  man  arises  the  idea  of 
God,  peopling  the  lonely  place,  effacing  the  scars  of 
our  mistakes  and  disappointments! 

August  Eighth. 

Ineffable  is  the  union  of  man  and  God  in  every  act 
of  the  soul.  *  *  *  Ever  it  inspires  awe  and  aston 
ishment. 

August   Ninth. 

The  soul  looketh  steadily  forwards,  creating  a  world 
always  before  her,  leaving  worlds  always  behind  her. 

August  Tenth. 

O,  believe,  as  thou  livest,  that  every  sound  that  is 
spoken  over  the  round  world,  which  thou  oughtest  to 
hear,  will  vibrate  on  thine  ear. 

(74) 


THE  OVER-SOUL. 

August  Eleventh. 

O  the  soul  in  her  pure  action  all 
the  virtues  are  natural,  and  not 
painfully  acquired.  Speak  to 
his  heart,  and  the  man  becomes 
suddenly  virtuous. 

August  Twelfth. 

A  wise  old  proverb  says,  "God  conies  to  see  us 
without  bell." 

August  Thirteenth. 

Those  who  are  capable  of  humility,  of  justice,  of 
love,  of  aspiration,  are  already  on  a  platform  that  com 
mands  the  sciences  and  arts,  speech  and  poetry,  action 
and  grace. 

August  Fourteenth. 

Before  the  great  revelations  of  the  soul,  Time, 
Space  and  Nature  shrink  away. 

August  Fifteenth. 

She  has  no  dates,  nor  rites,  nor  persons,  nor  special 
ties,  nor  men.  The  soul  knows  only  the  soul;  all  else 
is  idle  weeds  for  her  wearing. 

(75) 


THE  OVER-SOUL. 

August  Sixteenth. 

HE  weakness  of  the  will  begins 
when  the  individual  would  be 
some  thing  of  himself.  All 
reform  aims  in  some  one  par 
ticular  to  let  the  great  soul 
have  its  way  through  us;  in 
other  words,  to  engage  us  to 
obey. 

August  Seventeenth. 

The  heart  which  abandons  itself  to  the  Supreme 
Mind  finds  itself  related  to  all  its  works,  and  will  travel 
a  royal  road  to  particular  knowledges  and  powers. 

August  Eighteenth. 

The  most  exact  calculator  has  no  prescience  that 
somewhat  incalculable  may  not  baulk  the  very  next 
moment. 

August  Nineteenth. 

The  whole  intercourse  of  society,  its  trade,  its  re 
ligion,  its  friendships,  its  quarrels, — is  one  wide  judi 
cial  investigation  of  character. 

August  Twentieth. 

That  which  we  are,  we  shall  teach,  not  voluntarily 
but  involuntarily. 

(76) 


THE  OVER-SOUL. 
August  Twenty-first. 

EAL  so  plainly  with  man  and 
woman  as  to  constrain  the  ut 
most  sincerity  and  destroy  all 
hope  of  trifling  with  you.  It 
is  the  highest  compliment  you 
can  pay. 

August  Twenty-second. 

More  and  more  the  surges  of  everlasting  nature  en 
ter  into  me,  and  I  become  public  and  human  in  my 
regards  and  actions. 

August  Twenty-third. 

The  things  that  are  really  for  thee  gravitate  to  thee. 
August  Twenty-fourth. 

Some  thoughts  always  find  us  young  and  keep  us 
so.  Such  a  thought  is  the  love  of  the  universal  and 
eternal  beauty. 

August  Twenty-fifth. 

He  that  finds  God  a  sweet  enveloping  thought  to 
him  never  counts  his  company.  When  I  sit  in  that 
presence  who  shall  dare  to  come  in? 

(77) 


THE  OVER-SOUL. 


August  Twenty-sixth. 

VERY  friend  whom  not  thy 
fantastic  will  but  the  great  and 
tender  heart  in  thee  craveth, 
shall  lock  thee  in  his  embrace. 
And  this,  because  the  heart  in 
thee  is  the  heart  of  all. 

August  Twenty-seventh. 

It  is  not  in  an  arbitrary  "decree  of  God,"  but  in  the 
nature  of  man,  that  a  veil  shuts  down  on  the  facts  of 
to-morrow;  *  *  *  by  this  veil  which  curtains 
events  it  instructs  the  children  of  men  to  live  in  to 
day. 

August  Twenty-eighth. 

The  soul  that  ascendeth  to  worship  the  great  God, 
is  plain  and  true;  *  *  *  does  not  want  admira 
tion  ;  dwells  in  the  hour  that  now  is,  in  the  earnest  ex 
perience  of  the  common  day. 

August  Twenty-ninth. 

The  least  activity  of  the  intellectual  powers  redeems 
us  in  a  degree  from  the  influence  of  time.  In  sickness, 
in  languor,  give  us  a  strain  of  poetry  or  a  profound 
sentence,  and  we  are  refreshed. 

(78) 


THE  OVER-SOUL. 

August  Thirtieth. 

HE  action  of  the  soul  is  oftener 
in  that  which  is  felt  and  left 
unsaid  than  in  that  which  is 
said  in  any  conversation. 

August  Thirty-first. 

We  owe  many  valuable  observations  to  people  who 
are  not  very  acute  or  profound,  and  who  say  the  thing 
without  effort  which  we  want  and  have  long  been 
hunting  in  vain. 


(79) 


CHARACTER 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S        ESSAY        "CHARACTER" 


CHARACTER. 


September  First. 


E  cannot  find  the  smallest  part 
of  the  personal  weight  of 
Washington,  in  the  narrative 
of  his  exploits.  *  *  *  but 
somewhat  resided  in  these 
men  which  begot  an  expecta 
tion  that  outran  all  their  per 
formance. 


September  Second. 

This  is  that  which  we  call  Character, — a  reserved 
force  which  acts  directly  by  presence,  and  without 
means. 

September  Third. 

The  purest  literary  talent  appears  at  one  time  great, 
at  another  time  small,  but  character  is  of  a  stellar  and 
undiminishable  greatness. 

September  Fourth. 

No  change  of  circumstances  can  repair  a  defect  of 
character. 

September  Fifth. 

The  reason  why  this  or  that  man  is  fortunate,  is  not 
to  be  told.  It  lies  in  the  man ;  that  is  all  anybody  can 
tell  you  about  it. 

(83) 


CHARACTER. 


September  Sixth. 

IGHER  natures  overpower 
lower  ones  by  affecting  with  a 
certain  sleep.  The  faculties 
are  locked  up  and  offer  no  re 
sistance.  Perhaps  that  is  the 
universal  law. 

September  Seventh. 

A  healthy  soul  stands  united  with  the  Just  and  the 
True,  as  the  magnet  arranges  itself  with  the  pole. 
*  *  *  he  is  thus  the  medium  of  the  highest  influ 
ence  to  all  who  are  not  on  the  same  level. 

September  Eighth. 

Men  of  character  are  the  conscience  of  the  society 
to  which  they  belong. 

September  Ninth. 

Truth  is  the  summit  of  being:  justice  is  the  appli 
cation  of  it  to  affairs. 

September  Tenth. 

Our  action  should  rest  mathematically  on  our  sub 
stance.  In  nature,  there  are  no  false  valuations. 

(84) 


CHARACTER. 


September  Eleventh. 


HE  covetousness  *  *  *  which 
saddens  me,  when  I  ascribe  it 
to  society,  is  my  own.  I  am 
always  environed  by  myself. 
On  the  other  part,  rectitude  is 
a  perpetual  victory,  celebrated 
*  *  *  by  serenity,  which 
is  joy  fixed  or  habitual. 


September  Twelfth. 

Justice  must  prevail,  and  it  is  the  privilege  of  truth 
to  make  itself  believed.  Character  is  this  moral  order 
seen  through  the  medium  of  an  individual. 

September  Thirteenth. 

How  often  has  the  influence  of  a  true  master  real 
ized  all  the  tales  of  magic !  A  river  of  command  seems 
to  run  down  from  his  eyes  into  all  those  who  behold 
him. 

September  Fourteenth. 

Divine  persons  are  character  born,  or,  to  borrow  a 
phrase  from  Napoleon,  they  are  victory  organized. 

September  Fifteenth. 

Those  who  live  to  the  future  must  always  appear 
selfish  to  those  who  live  to  the  present. 

(85) 


CHARACTER. 

September  Sixteenth. 


T  is  not  enough  that  the  intel 
lect  should  see  the  evils,  and 
their  remedy.  We  shall  still 
postpone  our  existence,  nor 
take  the  ground  to  which  we 
are  entitled,  whilst  it  is  only 
a  thought  and  not  a  spirit  that 
incites  us. 


September  Seventeenth. 

New  actions  are  the  only  apologies  and  explana 
tions  of  old  ones,  which  the  noble  can  bear  to  offer 
or  receive. 

September  Eighteenth. 

The  history  of  those  gods  and  saints  which  the 
world  has  written,  and  then  worshiped,  are  documents 
of  character. 

September  Nineteenth. 

When  the  high  cannot  bring  up  the  low  to  itself,  it 
benumbs  it,  as  man  charms  down  the  resistance  of  the 
lower  animals.  Men  exert  on  each  other  a  similar 
occult  power. 

September  Twentieth. 

Some  natures  are  too  good  to  be  spoiled  by  praise, 
and  whenever  the  vein  of  thought  reaches  down  into 
the  profound,  there  is  no  danger  from  vanity. 

(86) 


CHARACTER. 
September  Twenty-first. 

HARACTER  is  nature  in  the 
highest  form.  *  *  *  This 
masterpiece  is  best  when  no 
hands  but  nature's  have  been 
laid  on  it. 

September  Twenty-second. 

If  your  friend  has  displeased  you,  you  shall  not  sit 
down  to  consider  it,  for  he  has  already  lost  all  memory 
of  the  passage,  and  has  doubled  his  power  to  serve 
you,  and,  ere  you  can  rise  up  again,  will  burden  you 
with  blessings. 

September  Twenty-third. 

Men  should  be  intelligent  and  earnest.  They  must 
also  make  us  feel,  that  they  have  a  controlling  happy 
future,  opening  before  them,  which  sheds  a  splendor 
on  the  passing  hour. 

September  Twenty-fourth. 

Character  wants  room;  must  not  be  crowded  on  by 
persons,  nor  be  judged  from  glimpses  got  in  the  press 
of  affairs,  or  on  few  occasions.  It  needs  perspective, 
as  a  great  building. 

(87) 


CHARACTER. 


September  Twenty-fifth. 

VERY  trait  which  the  artist  re 
corded  in  stone,  he  had  s,een 
in  life,  and  better  than  his 
copy.  We  have  seen  many 
counterfeits,  but  we  are  born 
believers  in  great  men. 

September  Twenty-sixth. 

I  know  nothing  which  life  has  to  offer  so  satisfying 
as  the  profound  good  understanding,  which  can  sub 
sist  *  *  *  between  two  virtuous  men,  each  of 
whom  is  sure  of  himself,  and  sure  of  his  friend. 

September  Twenty-seventh. 

When  men  shall  meet  as  they  ought,  each  a  bene 
factor,  *  *  *  clothed  with  thoughts,  with  deeds, 
with  accomplishments,  it  should  be  the  festival  of  na 
ture  which  all  things  announce. 

September  Twenty-eighth. 

We  have  no  pleasure  in  thinking  of  a  benevolence 
that  is  only  measured  by  its  works.  Love  is  inex 
haustible,  and  if  its  estate  is  wasted,  its  granary 
emptied,  still  cheers  and  enriches. 


(88) 


CHARACTER. 


September  Twenty-ninth. 


RIENDS  also  follow  the  laws  of 
divine  necessity;  they  gravi 
tate  to  each  other,  and  cannot 
otherwise : — 

"When    each    the    other    shall 

avoid 

Shall  each  by  each  be  most 
enjoyed." 


September  Thirtieth. 

We  shall  one  day  see  that  the  most  private  is  the 
most  public  energy,  that  quality  atones  for  quantity, 
and  grandeur  of  character  acts  in  the  dark,  and  suc 
cors  them  who  never  saw  it. 


(89) 


NATURE 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH    WALDO 
EMERSON'S        ESSAY        "NATURE" 


(91) 


NATURE. 


October  First. 


HE  rounded  world  is  fair  to  see, 
Nine  times  folded  in  mystery: 
Though  baffled  seers  cannot 

impart 
The    secret    of    its     laboring 

heart, 
Throb     thine     with     Nature's 

throbbing  Breast, 
And  all  is  clear  from  East  to 

West." 


October  Second. 

A  man  can  only  speak,  so  long  as  he  does  not  feel  his 
speech  to  be  partial  and  inadequate. 

October  Third. 

It  seems  as  if  the  day  was  not  wholly  profane,  in 
which  we  have  given  heed  to  some  natural  object. 

October  Fourth. 

Nature   cannot   be   surprised   in   undress.    Beauty 
breaks  in  everywhere. 

October   Fifth. 

The  difference  between  landscape  and  landscape  is 
small,  but  there  is  great  difference  in  the  beholders. 

(93) 


NATURE. 


October  Sixth. 


ERE  (at  the  gates  of  the  forest) 
we  find  nature  to  be  the  cir 
cumstance  which  dwarfs  every 
other  circumstance,  and  judges 
like  a  god  all  men  that  come 
to  her. 


October  Seventh. 

The  day,  immeasurably  long,  sleeps  over  the  broad 
hills  and  warm  wide  fields.  To  have  lived  through  all 
its  sunny  hours,  seems  longevity  enough. 

October  Eighth. 

No  man  is  quite  sane ;  each  has  a  vein  of  folly  in  his 
composition. 

October  Ninth. 

We  aim  above  the  mark,  to  hit  the  mark.  Every  act 
hath  some  falsehood  of  exaggeration  in  it. 

October  Tenth. 

The  tempered  light  of  the  woods  is  like  a  perpetual 
morning,  and  is  stimulating  and  heroic.  *  *  * 
The  incommunicable  trees  begin  to  persuade  us  to  live 
with  them,  and  quit  our  life  of  solemn  trifles. 

(94) 


NATURE. 


October  Eleventh. 


E  who  knows  the  most,  he  who 
knows  what  sweets  and  virtues 
are  in  the  ground,  the  water, 
the  plants,  the  heavens,  and 
how  to  come  at  these  enchant 
ments,  is  the  rich  and  royal 
man. 


October  Twelfth. 

Only  as  far  as  the  Masters  of  the  world  have  called 
in  nature  to  their  aid,  can  they  reach  the  height  of 
magnificence. 

October  Thirteenth. 

Nature  is  always  consistent  though  she  feigns  to 
contravene  her  own  laws.  She  keeps  her  laws  and 
seems  to  transcend  them. 

October  Fourteenth. 

Every  moment  instructs,  and  every  object:  for  wis 
dom  is  infused  into  every  form.  *  *  *  we  did  not 
guess  its  essence  until  after  a  long  time. 

October  Fifteenth. 

The  hunger  for  wealth,  which  reduces  the  planet  to 
a  garden,  fools  the  eager  pursuer. 

(95) 


NATURE. 


October  Sixteenth. 


(HE  stars  at  night  stoop  down 
over  the  brownest,  homeliest 
common,  with  all  the  spiritual 
magnificence  which  they  shed 
on  the  Campagna,  or  on  the 
marble  deserts  of  Egypt. 


October  Seventeenth. 

The  reflections  of  trees  and  flowers  in  glassy  lakes, 
the  musical  *  *  *  south  wind,  *  *  * — these 
are  the  music  and  pictures  of  the  most  ancient  religion. 

October  Eighteenth. 

We  exaggerate  the  praises  of  local  scenery.  In 
every  landscape  the  point  of  astonishment  is  the  meet 
ing  of  the  sky  and  the  earth,  and  that  is  seen  from  the 
first  hillock  as  well  as  from  the  Alleghanies. 

October  Nineteenth. 

There  are  days  which  occur  in  this  climate,  at  al 
most  any  season  of  the  year,  wherein  the  world 
reaches  its  perfection,  when  the  air,  the  heavenly 
bodies,  and  the  earth,  make  a  harmony,  as  if  nature 
would  indulge  her  offspring. 


(96) 


NATURE. 


October  Twentieth. 


HE  discovery  that  wisdom  has 
other  tongues  and  ministers 
than  we,  that  though  we 
should  hold  our  peace,  the 
truth  would  not  the  less  be 
spoken,  might  check  injuri 
ously  the  flames  of  our  zeal. 


October  Twenty-first. 

The  beauty  of  nature  must  always  seem  unreal  and 
mocking,  until  the  landscape  has  human  figures,  that 
are  as  good  as  itself. 

October  Twenty-second. 

Nature  is  loved  by  what  is  best  in  us.  It  is  loved 
as  the  City  of  God,  although,  or  rather  because  there 
is  no  citizen.  The  sunset  is  unlike  anything  that  is 
underneath  it:  it  wants  men. 

October  Twenty-third. 

It  is  an  odd  jealousy :  but  the  poet  finds  himself  not 
near  enough  to  his  object.  *  *  *  What  splendid 
distance,  what  recesses  of  ineffable  pomp  and  loveli 
ness  in  the  sunset!  But  who  can  go  where  they  are 
or  lay  his  hand  or  plant  his  foot  thereon? 


(97) 


NATURE. 


October  Twenty-fourth. 

ATURE  is  the  incarnation  of  a 
thought,  and  turns  to  a 
thought  again,  as  ice  becomes 

water  and  gas. 
October  Twenty-fifth. 

"Spirit  that  lurks  each  form  within 
Beckons  to  spirit  of  its  kin; 
Self-kindled  every  atom  glows, 
And  hints  the  future  which  it  owes." 

October  Twenty-sixth. 

No  man  can  write  anything,  who  does  not  think  that 
what  he  writes  is  for  the  time  the  history  of  the  world ; 
or  do  anything  well  who  does  not  esteem  his  work  to 
be  of  importance. 

October  Twenty-seventh. 

After  every  foolish  day  we  sleep  off  the  fumes  and 
furies  of  its  hours ;  and  though  we  are  always  engaged 
with  particulars,  and  often  enslaved  to  them,  we  bring 
with  us  to  every  experiment  the  innate  universal  laws. 

(98) 


NATURE. 


October  Twenty-eighth. 


HE  moral  sensibility  which 
makes  Edens  and  Tempes  so 
easily,  may  not  be  always 
found,  but  the  material  land 
scape  is  never  far  off.  We  can 
find  these  enchantments  with 
out  visiting  Como  Lake  or  the 
Madeira  Islands. 


October  Twenty-ninth. 

We  live  in  a  system  of  approximations.  Every  end 
is  prospective  of  some  other  end,  which  is  also  tempo 
rary,  a  round  and  final  success  no  where. 

October  Thirtieth. 

We  are  escorted  on  every  hand  through  life  by 
spiritual  agents,  and  a  beneficent  purpose  lies  in  wait 
for  us. 

October  Thirty-first. 

To  the  intelligent,  nature  converts  itself  into  a  vast 
promise,  and  will  not  be  rashly  explained.  Her  secret 
is  untold. 


(99) 


NOMINALIST*™  REALIST 

SELECTED  GEMS  FROM 
RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON'S 
ESSAY  "NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST" 


(101) 


NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST. 
November  First. 


E  have  such  exorbitant  eyes  that 
on  seeing  the  smallest  arc  we 
complete  the  curve,  and  when 
the  curtain  is  lifted  *  *  * 
we  are  vexed  to  find  that  no 
more  was  drawn,  than  just 
that  fragment  of  arc  which  we 
first  beheld. 


November  Second. 

Great  men  or  men  of  great  gifts  you  shall  easily 
find,  but  symmetrical  men  never. 

November  Third. 

All  persons  exist  to  society  by  some  shining  trait 
of  beauty  or  utility,  which  they  have. 

November  Fourth. 

A  personal  influence  is  an  IGNIS  FATUUS.  *  *  * 
the  Will-o'-the-wisp  vanishes  if  you  go  too  near,  van 
ishes  if  you  go  too  far,  and  only  blazes  at  one  angle. 

November  Fifth. 

Beautiful  details  we  must  have,  or  no  artist:  but 
they  must  be  means  and  never  other.  The  eye  must 
not  lose  sight  for  a  moment  of  the  purpose. 

(103) 


NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST. 
November  Sixth. 


T  is  bad  enough,  that  our 
geniuses  cannot  do  anything 
useful,  but  it  is  worse  that  no 
man  is  fit  for  society  who  has 
fine  traits.  He  is  admired  at 
a  distance,  but  he  cannot  come 
near  without  appearing  a 
cripple. 


November  Seventh. 

All  our  poets,  heroes,  and  saints  fail  utterly  in  some 
one  or  in  many  parts  to  satisfy  our  idea,  fail  to  draw 
out  spontaneous  interest,  and  so  leave  us  without  any 
hope  of  realization  but  in  our  own  future. 

November  Eighth. 

Our  proclivity  to  details  cannot  quite  degrade  our 
life,  and  divest  it  of  poetry. 

November  Ninth. 

There  is  nothing  we  cherish  and  strive  to  draw  to 
us,  but  in  some  hour  we  turn  and  rend  it. 

November  Tenth. 

Proportion  is  almost  impossible  to  human  beings. 
There  is  no  one  who  does  not  exaggerate. 

(104) 


NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST. 
November  Eleventh. 


ENCE  the  immense  benefit  of 
party  in  politics,  as  it  reveals 
faults  of  character  in  a  chief, 
which  the  intellectual  force  of 
the  person,  with  ordinary  op 
portunity  and  not  hurled  into 
aphelion  by  hatred,  could  not 
have  been  seen. 


November  Twelfth. 

Lively  boys  write  to  their  ear  and  eye,  and  the  cool 
reader  finds  nothing  but  sweet  jingles  in  it.  When 
they  grow  older  they  respect  the  argument. 

November  Thirteenth. 

Wherever  you  go  a  wit  like  your  own  has  been  be 
fore  you,  and  has  realized  its  thought. 

November  Fourteenth. 

Nature  keeps  herself  whole,  and  her  representation 
complete  in  the  experience  of  each  mind.  She  suffers 
no  seat  to  be  vacant  in  her  college. 

November  Fifteenth. 

All  things  show  us,  that  on  every  side  we  are  very 
near  to  the  best. 

(105) 


NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST. 

November  Sixteenth. 


OR,  rightly,  every  man  is 
a  channel  through  which 
heaven  floweth,  and,  whilst  I 
fancied  I  was  criticising  him, 
I  was  censuring  or  rather  ter 
minating  my  own  soul. 


November  Seventeenth. 

The  rotation  which  whirls  every  leaf  and  pebble  to 
the  meridian,  reaches  to  every  gift  of  man,  and  we  all 
take  turns  at  the  top. 

November  Eighteenth. 

As  long  as  any  man  exists  there  is  some  need  of 
him;  let  him  fight  for  his  own. 

November  Nineteenth. 

Our  affections  and  our  experience  urge  that  every 
individual  is  entitled  to  honor,  and  a  very  generous 
treatment  is  sure  to  be  repaid. 

November  Twentieth. 

What  is  best  in  each  kind  is  an  index  of  what  should 
be  the  average  of  that  thing. 

(106) 


NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST. 
November  Twenty-first. 

T  is  commonly  said  by  farmers, 
that  a  good  pear  or  apple  costs 
no  more  time  or  pains  to  rear 
than  a  poor  one;  so  I  would 
have  no  work  of  art,  no  speech, 
or  action,  or  thought,  or 
friend,  but  the  best. 

November  Twenty-second. 

The  men  of  fine  parts  protect  themselves  by  solitude 
or  by  courtesy;  or  by  satire  or  by  an  acid  worldly 
manner,  each  concealing  as  he  best  can,  his  incapacity 
for  useful  association,  but  they  want  either  love  or  self- 
reliance. 

November  Twenty-third. 

How  sincere  and  confidential  we  can  be,  saying  all 
that  lies  in  the  mind,  and  yet  go  away  feeling  that 
all  is  yet  unsaid,  from  the  incapacity  of  the  parties  to 
know  each  other,  although  they  use  the  same 
words ! 

November  Twenty-fourth. 

If  you  criticise  a  fine  genius  the  odds  are  that  you 
are  out  of  your  reckoning,  and,  instead  of  the  poet,  are 
censuring  your  own  caricature  of  him. 

(107) 


NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST. 

November  Twenty-fifth. 

JF  we  were  not  of  all  opinions !  if 
we  did  not  in  any  moment 
shift  the  platform  on  which  we 
stand,  and  look  and  speak  from 
another ! 

November  Twenty-sixth. 

Each  man's  genius  being  nearly  and  affectionately 
explored,  he  is  justified  in  his  individuality,  as  his  na 
ture  is  found  to  be  immense. 

November  Twenty-seventh. 

It  is  the  secret  of  the  world  that  all  things  subsist, 
and  do  not  die,  but  only  retire  a  little  from  sight,  and 
afterwards  return  again. 


November  Twenty-eighth. 

The  reason  of  idleness  and  of  crime  is  the  deferring 
of  our  hopes.  Whilst  we  are  waiting  we  beguile  the 
time  with  jokes,  with  sleep,  with  eating  and  with 
crimes. 

(108) 


NOMINALIST  AND  REALIST. 

November  Twenty-ninth. 

E  fancy  men  are  individuals;  so 
are  pumpkins;  but  every 
pumpkin  in  the  Held  goes 
through  every  point  of  pump 
kin  history. 

November  Thirtieth. 

It  is  all  idle  talking;  as  much  as  a  man  is  a  whole, 
so  is  he  also  a  part ;  and  it  were  partial  not  to  see  it. 


I  ioo) 


I     NTELLECT 

SELECTED     GEMS     FROM     RALPH     WALDO 
EMERSON'S         ESSAY         "INTELLECT" 


(in) 


INTELLECT. 


December  First. 


ATER  dissolves  wood  and  iron 
and  salt;  air  dissolves  water; 
electric  fire  dissolves  air,  but 
the  intellect  dissolves  fire, 
gravity,  laws,  method  and  the 
subtlest  unnamed  relations  on 
nature  in  its  resistless  men 
struum. 


December  Second. 

Intellect  lies  behind  genius,  which  is  intellect  con 
structive. 

December  Third. 

Gladly  would  I  unfold  in  calm  degrees  a  natural 
history  of  the  intellect,  but  what  man  has  yet  been 
able  to  mark  the  steps  and  boundaries  of  that  trans 
parent  essence? 

December  Fourth. 

Intellect  is  void  of  affection,  and  sees  an  object  as 
it  stands  in  the  light  of  science,  cool  and  disengaged. 

December  Fifth. 

A  truth,  separated  by  the  intellect,  is  no  longer  a 
subject  of  destiny.  We  behold  it  as  a  god  upraised 
above  care  and  fear. 

(113) 


INTELLECT. 


December  Sixth. 

VERY  man  beholds  his  human 
condition  with  a  degree  of 
melancholy.  As  a  ship  aground 
is  battered  by  the  waves,  so 
man,  imprisoned  in  mortal 
life,  lies  open  to  the  mercy  of 
coming  events. 

December  Seventh. 

Nature  shows  all  things  formed  and  bound.  The 
intellect  pierces  the  form,  overleaps  the  wall,  detects 
intrinsic  likeness  between  remote  things  and  reduces 
all  things  into  a  few  principles. 

December  Eighth. 

The  making  a  fact  the  subject  of  thought  raises  it. 
December  Ninth. 

What  is  addressed  to  us  for  contemplation  does  not 
threaten  us  but  makes  us  intellectual  beings. 

December  Tenth. 

All  our  progress  is  an  unfolding  like  the  vegetable 
bud.  You  have  first  an  instinct,  then  an  opinion,  then 
a  knowledge,  as  the  plant  has  root,  bud  and  fruit. 

("4) 


INTELLECT. 


December  Eleventh. 

ONG  prior  to  the  age  of  reflec 
tion  is  the  thinking  of  the 
mind.  Out  of  darkness  it  came 
insensibly  into  the  marvelous 
light  of  to-day. 

December  Twelfth. 

And  so  any  fact  in  our  life,  *  *  *  disentangled 
from  the  web  of  our  unconsciousness,  becomes  an  ob 
ject  impersonal  and  immortal.  It  is  the  past  re 
stored,  but  embalmed. 

December  Thirteenth. 
We  have  little  control  over  our  thoughts. 
December  Fourteenth. 

In  the  fog  of  good  and  evil  affections  it  is  hard  for 
man  to  walk  forward  in  a  straight  line. 

December  Fifteenth. 

The  walls  of  rude  minds  are  scrawled  all  over  with 
facts,  with  thoughts.  They  shall  one  day  bring  a  lan 
tern  and  read  the  inscriptions. 

(us) 


INTELLECT. 


December  Sixteenth. 

E  are  the  prisoners  of  ideas. 
They  catch  us  up  for  moments 
into  their  heaven  and  so  fully 
engage  us  that  we  take  no 
thought  for  the  morrow. 

December  Seventeenth. 

In  the  most  worn,  pedantic,  introverted  self-tor 
mentor's  life,  the  greatest  part  is  incalculable  by  him, 
unforeseen,  unimaginable,  and  must  be,  until  he  can 
take  himself  up  by  his  own  ears. 

December  Eighteenth. 

God  enters  by  a  private  door  into  every  individual. 
December  Nineteenth. 

If  we  consider  what  persons  have  stimulated  and 
profited  us,  we  shall  perceive  the  superiority  of  the 
spontaneous  or  intuitive  principle  over  the  arith 
metical  or  logical. 

December  Twentieth. 

What  is  the  hardest  task  in  the  world?    To  think, 
(116) 


INTELLECT. 


December  Twenty-first. 

RUST  the  instinct  to  the  end, 
though  you  can  render  no  rea 
son.  It  is  vain  to  hurry  it. 
By  trusting  it  to  the  end,  it 
shall  ripen  into  truth  and  you 
shall  know  why  you  believe. 

December  Twenty-second. 

Each  mind  has  its  own  method.  A  true  man  never 
acquires  after  college  rules.  What  you  have  aggre 
gated  in  a  natural  manner  surprises  and  delights  when 
it  is  produced. 

December  Twenty-third. 

The  considerations  of  time  and  place,  of  you  and 
me,  of  profit  and  hurt,  tyrannize  over  most  men's 
minds.  Intellect  separates  the  fact  considered,  from 
you,  from  all  local  and  personal  reference,  and  dis 
cerns  it  as  if  it  existed  for  its  own  sake. 

December  Twenty-fourth. 

The  constructive  intellect  produces  thoughts,  sen 
tences,  poems,  plans,  designs,  systems.  It  is  the  gen 
eration  of  the  mind,  the  marriage  of  thought  with  na 
ture. 

("7) 


INTELLECT. 


December  Twenty-fifth. 

ESUS  says,  Leave  father,  mother, 
house  and  lands,  and  follow 
Me.  Who  leaves  all,  receives 
more.  This  is  as  true  intel 
lectually  as  morally. 

December  Twenty-sixth. 

Our  spontaneous  action  is  always  the  best.  You 
cannot  with  your  best  deliberation  and  heed  come  so 
close  to  any  question  as  your  spontaneous  glance  will 
bring  you  whilst  you  rise  from  your  bed,  *  *  * 
after  meditating  the  matter  before  sleep  on  the  previ 
ous  night. 

December  Twenty-seventh. 

Not  by  any  conscious  imitation  of  particular  forms 
are  the  grand  strokes  of  the  painter  executed,  but  by 
repairing  to  the  fountain-head  of  all  forms  in  his  mind. 

December  Twenty-eighth. 

If  the  constructive  powers  are  rare  and  it  is  given 
to  few  men  to  be  poets,  yet  every  man  is  a  receiver  of 
this  descending  holy  ghost,  and  may  well  study  the 
laws  of  its  influx. 

("8) 


INTELLECT. 
December  Twenty-ninth. 

OD  offers  to  every  mind  its 
choice  between  truth  and  re 
pose.  Take  which  you  please, 

— you  can  never  have  both. 
December  Thirtieth. 

He  in  whom  the  love  of  repose  predominates  will 
accept  the  first  creed,  the  first  philosophy.  *  *  * 
He  gets  rest,  commodity  and  reputation ;  but  he  shuts 
the  door  of  truth. 

December  Thirty-first. 

The  ancient  sentence  said,  Let  us  be  silent,  for  so  are 
the  gods.  Silence  is  a  solvent  that  destroys  person 
ality,  and  gives  us  leave  to  be  great  and  universal. 


(U9) 


HERE      ENDS      "THROUGH      THE 
YEAR     WITH     EMERSON"     AS 
COMPILED     BY     EDITH 
E.     WOOD     AND     PUB 
LISHED  BY  DODGE 
PUBLISHING 
COMPANY 
N.     Y. 


(121) 


!£SffiSSi£S28S*  LIBRARY  FACILITY 


A     000  407  658     4 


